The Dinner Party Analogy

The Dinner Party Analogy

Have you ever thrown a dinner party? It seems easy, right? Buy some food, invite some people, and it will be a huge success.

But it never is. You need to send invites early, find out if people are allergic to anything, follow-up individuals to remind people to come, stage the conversation once people come, start connecting friends that would fit, get good seating arrangements, put people apart who don’t like each other, move the meal through each stage, and then clean up at the end.

Yeah…kind of tiring, eh? I believe the art of community building is much like the art of a dinner party. GovLoop seems really easy right? Just get some food (technology) and invite some people (send email out) and then it will be huge hit.

I thought that originally as well. But I learned it is like a dinner party. It takes a lot of work to make that great dinner party.

But much like a great dinner party – it is all about the guests who make it. And GovLoop is about you.

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5 Comments

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Amanda Blount

COOL ANALOGY! Like any office, we will never all agree, but we would never want for anything less than what we have right here. Diversity is what makes things special.

Sam Allgood

Like a dinner party also, if you try to get a taste of everything, you can leave feeling bloated and unable to digest everything. Best to be selective, eat what you really like and can digest easily, and then process it (don’t just let it go to waist 🙂

GovLoop

Sam – I like that analogy. I think part of where I hope to help in GovLoop as well is to help people find the small bites they want to eat vs an all or nothing buffet approach.

Dawn Lautwein

I really appreciate the weekly newsletter with Top Discussions and Top Blogs. That hosting is crucial for me to enjoy the party. Being primarily an RPG programmer in the middle of the country in county government with no responsibilities for Web 2.0, there are quite a few topics that aren’t as relevant to me, but your links help me find those of interest. Thanks!